


To Find the Triforce

by whatanauthorsgottado (LvanAm)



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Post-Spirit Tracks, adult timeline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-04-23 12:23:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14332416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LvanAm/pseuds/whatanauthorsgottado
Summary: A mishap at the New Hyrule Museum of Civilization finds Link and Zelda dragged into an adventure with an old man who doesn't speak Hylian...





	1. Chapter 1

Link looked around the museum in awe. With its high, vaulted ceilings and polished marble floors, it had to be the most beautiful building he'd ever seen – much nicer than the school with its mucky yellow brick, or the orphanage he lived in, where the wallpaper was half hanging off the walls and the old wooden rafters were exposed.

And that was saying nothing of the stuff inside the museum. The room Link's class was just stepping into was full of eye-catching displays – shards of metal and old tools in one display case, a pair of stained glass windows on the opposite wall featuring a blonde girl in pirate garb and a boy in a green tunic and hat, a large plaque standing in the middle of the room providing a lesson about the windows.

Link knew from his history lessons that the people depicted were Queen Tetra and King Link, the first rulers of New Hyrule. The legends – more like fairy tales, really – told that the two had defeated the King of Evil who brought Old Hyrule to ruin, but most people Link's age had stopped believing in those stories.

Link stopped his gawking and focused on his teacher. "...and don't touch the exhibits. We're going to meet back here to get on the bus at three thirty. Am I clear?"

The kids immediately scattered, talking excitedly to each other and forming haphazard groups as they ran off. Link didn't join them, instead choosing to make his way towards the Great Sea exhibit at a more sedate pace.

Link had always loved history. In his hazy early childhood, he remembered a big bookshelf of legends and picture books and rolled-up papers his mother had called scrolls. He remembered pestering his mother to tell him the Legend of Zelda every night before bedtime. When she died and he moved into the orphanage, he knew the legend well enough to tell it to the other kids.

Out of all of New Hyrule's history, though, he loved learning about the Great Sea. He knew almost all there was to know about the various islands and the people who lived on them, from the Rito of Dragon Roost to the merchants of Windfall Island, and he even knew a lot of what there was to know about the Koroks of the Forest Haven. He even knew some about the people who still lived on the islands, few though they were.

Naturally, being so interested in the Great Sea, he had heard of the expedition to find the bottom and whatever might be there. According to the news, the head archaeologist had found a journal that dated back to the time of King Link that talked about an ancient kingdom under the sea. Using information from the journal and radar images, the team had found the ruins of an old castle. Some of the items recovered from that expedition had been put on display in the New Hyrule Museum of Civilization.

Thus, Link's excitement.

The Great Sea exhibit was located one hallway away from the entrance, in a room with deep blue walls and ceiling, a banner on one wall proclaiming it to be the first room of the "Great Sea and Ancient Civilization Exhibit".

On stands around the room were pieces of glass and stones; interesting pieces to be sure, but the standout piece was the massive grey stone in the middle of the room, standing tall with a blue-hilted sword stuck into it.

Link vaguely noticed another kid with a pink hoodie looking at the stone as he approached its plaque, but they didn't say anything, so he ignored them.

_This stone was found at the top of a sunken tower. The stone was speculated to once have been a carved pedestal for the sword in the top. However, ocean currents appear to have eroded any trace of its former shape, and the sword can no longer be removed._

Link scratched his head. "Why is the stone so big? The sword is pretty little..."

"It's probably bigger than it looks," the girl in the pink hoodie replied. "But who knows? Maybe it was just really important."

"That makes sense. Why was it on top of a tower, though?"

She shrugged. "Maybe it was on display. Maybe the tower isn't even that tall. Maybe it was a fountain in a town square or something."

Link shrugged, tilting his head to look at the stone from a different angle as something occurred to him. "It looks like a person! See, there are the arms..."

The girl giggled, drawing Link's attention to her. Dramatically, she pulled back her hood and said, "Maybe it is a person! Maybe someone stuck a sword into their head and turned them to stone!"

She had a big grin on her face, but Link wasn't focused on that. He was focused on how familiar she looked...

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," said Princess Zelda teasingly.

"You're – but – no guards?" Link's mouth wouldn't work properly no matter what he tried to do.

She grinned slyly. "I snuck out. The guard captain isn't that bright. My tutor did help, though; she's pretending she can't find me in a game of hide and seek so I can go to the museum without being surrounded by a bunch of guards." She rolled her eyes. "They're so overprotective."

"Isn't that their job, though?"

"Yeah, but I can take care of myself. Besides, I've got someone better to look after me."

Link was about to ask who when she took his hand and dragged him off to see the rest of the museum.

Oh. Right. There he was.

The two spent the whole day dashing and messing around in the museum. Link learned quickly that Zelda loved to play little pranks, and that nothing would stop her from doing what she wanted. Most of her pranks were relatively harmless – moving little artifacts on pedestals into different positions, switching information plates on artworks, and generally being a silent nuisance to the security guards. They almost got caught a few times, but by right of being small ten-year-olds, they managed to blend into crowds really well.

Near the end of the day, they wound up back in the Great Sea room, staring at the stone again.

"It seems familiar," Zelda said, looking at the sword. "Like I've seen it before, in a past life or something." She turned to Link. "You're a little like that too. It's like I already knew you, like we were best friends once."

"I feel that too. Like, I've seen you on TV before, so I knew what you look like, but it's like something's telling me you're my friend."

They looked at each other for a few moments before simultaneously declaring, "Weird."

Zelda grinned at Link. "Since we're best friends now, how about one big thing? For me?"

"Sure..."

That grin meant nothing good.

"You have to do it yourself, though. I wanna take a picture."

That set him on high alert. "What?!"

"Don't worry, it'll be fine. It's perfectly safe, and I promise you we won't get caught."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Climb the rock and try to pull the sword out."

A second later, she grabbed his arms to keep him from running away. "Come on! It'll be funny! You can act like a knight from a fairy tale!"

"No way!"

"Come on, Link! I just want something to remember this trip by." In a lower voice, she added," I probably won't be able to get out of the castle for a while after this. I want something funny to remember while I'm cooped up. Please?"

Link could feel his resolve weakening. He took a quick glance around the room, which was empty except for the security guard standing at one of the doors, glued to his phone. Link sighed heavily, already regretting his decision.

"Fine, I'll climb the rock."

She grinned and threw her arms around him. "Thank you. I'll take a picture of you with your hands around the hilt." She let go and pulled her phone out of her hoodie pocket.

Link went around the far side of the statue to the security guard so that he wouldn't see the climb until it was too late.

The rock was a difficult climb, slanted so steeply and worn so smooth that he could hardly find a hand or foothold. Still, Link managed, and he clung to the top of the rock staring at the sword for a second.

Now that he was at the top, he could see that the sword wasn't that small. In fact, the exposed part of the blade was nearly the length of Link's forearm, and it looked like it was buried deep.

"Come on!" Zelda whispered from the ground. "Are you going to touch it or not?"

"I'm going." He wrapped his hands around the hilt of the sword and was amazed to find that it fit them perfectly. He gave the sword an experimental tug, not expecting it to move.

It did.

Link gave a shout of surprise and overbalanced, and three things happened at once.

One, the security guard looked up and started to yell at Link; two, Zelda's phone camera flashed; and three, Link's arms flew up in shock, his hands still wrapped around the hilt of the sword.

The sword came out of its pedestal, and Link's arms, still upwards, turned so that the blade was now standing straight up over his head. The blade gleamed in the dim light of the museum, and Link dimly heard the shutter of Zelda's camera play again.

Suddenly, the rock beneath Link's feet shuddered and began to crumble. He leapt off, rolling on the floor to absorb the momentum of his fall and landing on his butt, then turned around to stare as the stone began to glow and crack.

As Link, Zelda and the security guard watched, flakes of stone fell off the sword's former pedestal, revealing black underneath. The lines of cracks moved down to the floor, and suddenly all of the stone flew from the pedestal and dissolved into dust, leaving the black lower layer to collapse to the floor, two long metal blades now sticking out from the side of the pedestal that Link hadn't climbed.

Link, Zelda and the security guard all exchanged glances. Slowly, Link and Zelda began to approach the black mass on the floor.

"Hey, don't touch that, kid!" the security guard snapped. "I'm calling for backup. I don't know what you two did, but rock turning into... something else... is never a good thing."

Link and Zelda didn't stop, though. They continued to approach the pile, Zelda stretching out a hand to touch it. Just before she laid a hand on it, it began to stir, and the three occupants of the room froze.

Cautiously, Link touched the pile. A second later, the pile stirred again, and Link and Zelda came face-to-face with a man like no one they'd ever seen before.

The man's skin was dark – not the coffee-tan that Link sometimes saw on construction workers and people who worked outside a lot, but wet-earth brown. His hair and beard, by contrast, were bright and fiery red. The man's features were dominated by a large, hooked nose, which made him look as though he was well-accustomed to scowling. His eyes were bright orange, nearly a perfect match to the shards of jewel on his forehead. A white scar the approximate width and thickness of Link's blade on the man's forehead explained why there were only shards of a whole on his head.

In return, the man studied Zelda and Link for a moment, before scowling and leaping back, brandishing his blades in an aggressive stance. The two children recoiled in shock.

The man was  _huge_. Now that he was no longer slumped on the floor, they could see that he was more than double either of their heights, and indeed he even dwarfed the security guard, who was no small man. Coupled with his fluid motions and the ease with which he held his swords, the man who had been encased in stone looked every inch a warlord.

He glared at Link and at the sword in his hand, then said something entirely incomprehensible. Zelda and Link shared a quick glance, then shook their heads in united confusion.

He frowned, then said something again.

"I don't understand what you're trying to say," Link said. "Can you speak Hylian?"

The man scowled at him, and Link suddenly felt stupid. Of course the man encased in rock couldn't speak Hylian!

Zelda spoke up, though. "Link, I think he's-" She cut herself off and leapt out of the way as the warlord suddenly brought his sword down towards Link. Apparently, he'd had enough of talking.

Instinctively, Link raised his sword and deflected the blow to the side. The warlord's blade left a furrow in the marble floor as it skidded away from Link.

"Hey!" he yelled automatically, but the only response was the second sword aimed at his face. It went the same way as the other one.

Zelda leapt away, and Link scrambled to follow suit as the warlord's sword flew at him again. As Link dodged, the warlord struck again and again, aiming his blows to kill.

Suddenly, Zelda entered the fray, leaping from a pedestal onto the warlord's shoulders, a shard of glass held in her hand like a knife. The warlord reached to pull her off, but Link, seizing the opportunity, leapt up and slashed at the warlord's hands, making him drop his swords. Before he could retrieve them, Link kicked them away and pointed his sword at the warlord's face, making him freeze.

Zelda leapt off his shoulders and dashed around behind Link. As she passed, the warlord tried to grab at her, but Link slashed at his hands again to stop him. He scowled at Link and folded his arms, muttering something.

"I can't understand you, but I don't want to fight," Link said slowly, hoping that the warlord could understand him. "I don't even know who you are. Why did you attack me?"

The warlord scowled, then slowly, hesitantly, he asked a question in his unknown language.

"Link, I think that's Great Sea Hylian!" Zelda suddenly cut in. "I was trying to tell you that before he attacked you."

"Can you understand him at all?"

"...No. I'm not very good at Great Sea Hylian." Zelda's face lit up suddenly. "But my tutor's from the Great Sea! I bet she could understand him!"

"Well, that's something."

"Yeah. I'll go call her."

Zelda stepped away from Link and pulled her phone out of her pocket, already dialling. The warlord looked towards her as if to follow, but Link swiped his sword in front of his chest in an attempt to be threatening.

This drew only an amused glance. Still, the warlord seemed wary of Link – or the sword - so he stayed put. Link vaguely wondered why.

Zelda returned a few moments later. "She's on her way. Five minutes. The castle's not very far away."

Link nodded, then blurted out what they'd both been thinking since the action had stopped. "Why did he attack us? We didn't even do anything to him."

"I don't know, Link. I don't know anything more than you do."

"Hopefully your tutor can help..."


	2. Chapter 2

Several minutes later, a short older woman leaning on a cane taller than she was walked into the room, flanked by two tall men in green Royal Guard regalia.

"You are in a great deal of trouble, Princess Zelda," the woman said after surveying the damage to the room and glancing momentarily at Link, who was still holding the warlord in place with the threat of his sword. "Explain the situation."

Zelda told the tale from the point where she dared Link to climb the stone. Link helped out as well, interjecting details where they were needed. When they were done, the old woman nodded thoughtfully.

"And he speaks Great Sea Hylian? I wonder..." She spoke a short sentence to the warlord, whose eyebrows rose. He responded in kind.

Her eyes widened.

"What is it, Impa?" Zelda asked worriedly.

"He's speaking an old, old dialect of Great Sea Hylian. It is still understandable, though – just surprising." She returned her attention to the warlord, asking a question. He responded with a rather long monologue, interrupted occasionally by Impa remarking on something or other. When it was apparently over, the two began to trade statements and gesture at Link and Zelda a lot, apparently arguing.

Throughout the whole conversation, Link remained on edge, though the presence of the Royal Guard members and the green of their uniforms helped to soothe his nerves quite a bit.

Finally, the warlord's confused scowl mostly disappeared, and he crossed his arms and nodded at Impa. She turned to the children, who listened intently.

"The things he has told me seem unbelievable," she said with a shake of her head. "He spoke of events that happened over a thousand years ago, before the founding of New Hyrule. His name is Ganondorf, and he called himself the King of Evil."

A shock ran through Link, but before he could identify why, it disappeared. Zelda shivered slightly beside him, and he knew that she must have had a similar feeling.

Link had a sense Impa had not missed this, but she continued without comment. "He told me that his last memory was of a battle on the roof of a great tower with a boy and girl who looked like you two. He said the boy wielded the sword you now hold, and that it sealed him in stone. He indicated that it had great power in the right hands."

"It feels special," Link said. "I've never even seen a sword before, but this one feels... familiar."

Impa studied both the sword and the boy wielding it for a moment. When she was finished with her uncomfortable scrutiny, she nodded. "It suits you."

"Did he say anything else?" Zelda interjected. "An apology, maybe?"

"No, but you're right; he ought to." Impa smiled and turned to Ganondorf, speaking a short sentence. She received only a haughty stare in reply. She said something else in a reproving tone of voice, and Ganondorf replied with a short but condescending statement.

Impa swung her staff and whacked him solidly in the leg.

Ganondorf growled and drew back his hand as though to strike her. Instinctively, Link leapt in front of Impa, sword held at the ready. Ganondorf scowled at the sword and demanded something of Link angrily.

"He is asking if you truly intend to kill him."

Link shook his head. "I don't wanna fight you. I don't want you to hurt anyone, but I don't really want to fight. I still don't really know who you are, but I want to find out." He lowered the sword and passed it into his right hand, offering his left to Ganondorf in a clear gesture of peace. "I think you might be confused. I don't want to hurt you. I want to help."

Impa translated this speech, and for a moment, an odd look crossed Ganondorf's face. It looked to Link like confusion, but there was something mixed in that Link couldn't identify before the look disappeared.

Ganondorf reached out and took Link's hand in a firm shake.

"Good! Now that that's all settled, what do we do now?" Zelda asked.

"I believe we should proceed to the castle and tell your father what has happened," Impa said. "He'll want to know."

"You just want me to get in trouble!"

So, the four of them, flanked by the Royal Guard members, left the museum and headed for the castle. Shortly before they made it through the gate, a mass of dark clouds erupted from the castle and pelted the area with rain. The whole group stopped in their tracks.

Impa turned to Zelda. "Do you have the necklace with you?"

Zelda's hand went to her neck and she nodded.

"Good. I'll contact you when I know what is going on." She signalled the guards. "You two, with me." She then spoke a short sentence to Ganondorf, who scowled but nodded.

Impa headed towards the castle with the guards in tow. When she was out of sight, Link turned to Zelda. "What did she say to him?"

"I think she told him to look after us."

"Oh. Okay. Well, what should we do?"

"We should find somewhere safe." Zelda wrung her hands. "The safest place I can think of is the castle, but we can't go there... What to do..."

Link's expression brightened. "I know where we can go! There's a place in the woods near the orphanage, I go there to think and stuff all the time. I don't think anyone else knows about it."

"Great! Which way is the orphanage from here?"

"It's, um..." Link looked around, but a crowd was forming around the castle walls, and he couldn't see a thing. "Maybe if I could see over the crowd..."

Both children turned to Ganondorf, having had the same thought. A few moments of confusion and some miming later, they managed to get him to lift Link up so he could see their surroundings.

From his higher vantage point, Link spotted a familiar street sign. "That way!"

As soon as Ganondorf put him on the ground, Link grabbed Zelda's hand and took off, leaving Ganondorf to make his own way through the crowd. Fortunately, he was perfectly capable of keeping up.

Half an hour later, the rain was coming down harder and the black clouds had spread to cover what looked like most of the city. The three finally arrived at Link's safe place, which was a ramshackle hut in the middle of the woods.

Zelda eyed the hut dubiously. "That's your safe place?" Behind them, Ganondorf muttered something.

Link was oblivious. "Yep! It's a really great little place. I have it all stocked up with apples and stuff too. Don't worry, the roof doesn't have any holes in it."

Ganondorf had to stoop to enter the hut, but inside the shack was large enough to accommodate all three of them. True to Link's word, the roof didn't leak at all.

"Well, this is cozy," Zelda muttered, shifting closer to Link and away from Ganondorf while he took a seat.

"Told you, it's great!" Link held his hand out to Ganondorf. "Apple?"

"Apple," Ganondorf repeated, taking the fruit from the boy.

"Hey, that's great! We can teach you modern Hylian!"

Ganondorf shrugged, looking out the window and taking a bite of his apple.

"Okay... Um... My name is Link," the boy said slowly.

Ganondorf turned his gaze back to Link. The boy repeated the sentence, pointing his thumb at himself so Ganondorf could understand what he was trying to say.

Apparently the older man understood. "My name is... Ganondorf." He pointed to Zelda. "Name."

"I'm Zelda."

"Zelda.  _Princess_?" He mimed placing a crown on his head.

"Oh! Yes, I'm a princess."

Ganondorf nodded. "Yes."

"That's right!"

Ganondorf said something else, but neither of them understood. He frowned. " _Triforce._ "

"Triforce," Link repeated. He shook his head. "No idea."

"No?"

Link shook his head again. Ganondorf muttered a long sentence, then sighed. He said something slowly.

Link turned to Zelda silently.

"I think he said... No idea... No idea where you... something. I don't know. My written Great Sea is better than speaking it."

Link reached into his pocket and pulled out a small notebook and a pen and handed it to her. With a small smile at him, she started writing. When she was done, she handed the notebook to Ganondorf.

He studied the writing for a moment, then reached out for the pen. He flipped the page and began to write.

"What did you say?"

"I asked him about Triforce. What it meant."

"Oh."

When Ganondorf was finished, he'd filled up two pages in the notebook. He handed it back to Zelda.

"I can't read some of this," she muttered. "My Great Sea isn't that good. Still... I think I can get some of it." She studied the old man's script for a while.

"Okay, I think I got it. It looks like some kind of creation myth... Once, there was a land called Hyrule, and in it lived three golden goddesses. The goddesses... something... and left a great power called something – that must be Triforce. Triforce kept the land beautiful, until... something... and it broke. Then, there was... Link... Zelda... and Ganondorf... Courage, Wisdom and Power."

"That sounds like one of the old legends!"

"Really? Which one?"

"The Legend of Old Hyrule! It said there was a hero with great courage, who fought a very powerful evil wizard with the help of the wisdom of a princess. I don't really remember it that well, but it was a good one."

"Oh well. At least we kind of know what Triforce is, anyway."

"Yeah."

Suddenly, there was a flash of light and a noise. Zelda pulled at the cord around her neck, revealing a bright teal stone that was glowing.

"Impa?"

"Princess, you must get out of Castle City! The castle has been overtaken by monsters, and they're spreading throughout the city!" She said something in Great Sea Hylian, and Ganondorf replied in an argumentative tone. Impa snapped something out, and Ganondorf rolled his eyes and said something else.

"Ganondorf will aid you in leaving," Impa said. "Keep Link – and his sword – close to you. Good luck, princess. Goddess willing, I will see you again soon."

"Be careful, Impa!"

The stone stopped glowing, and Link knew that Impa was no longer there. He looked between the scared Zelda and the stoic Ganondorf, summoned up his courage, and said, "We should get going. The longer we wait, the more monsters will be around."

"You're right. How do we get out of town, though? I've never left Castle City, so I don't know where to go."

"I think…" Link considered what he knew about the area. "If we go down Bonooru Boulevard… that goes right onto Main Street, which should take us right to the south end of the city."

"Okay. I'll follow you."

Link slowly opened the front door of the hut. Nothing moved outside, so he crept out of the door, Zelda following behind.

The three emerged into the rainy forest and headed in the direction Link indicated, towards the road. Once they reached the edges of the road, Link gestured to the other two to stay back while he poked his head out of the bushes to see if the coast was clear.

Milling through the street were short, squat creatures with bright red skin and piglike faces. Their noses bulged out beneath beady little eyes, and most of them carried big, heavy-looking swords on their shoulders. There were a few people lying on the ground, most with horrid wounds and closed eyes. Link averted his own eyes before he gave up his position by vomiting.

Link crept back to Ganondorf and Zelda. "We'll have to go slowly. There's monsters all over the place."

"I'll follow close," Zelda whispered.

Link headed back to the edge of the woods with Zelda shadowing him and Ganondorf shortly behind. Surprisingly, the large man moved silently.

Link waited for an opening, then dashed across the street into an alley. Careful not to make any noise, he climbed up the stairs of the fire escape of one of the buildings to get to the roof. Zelda joined him in his climb; Ganondorf chose a more direct approach and leapt up the side of the squat building, landing on the edge of the roof.

Link and Zelda stared at him. He grunted and rolled his amber eyes at them, gesturing for them to continue their climb.

Once they made it to the roof, they looked out over the streets. Most of the streets they could see were in a similar state, with people lying dead in between patrolling monsters.

"It might be easier to use the rooftops," Zelda whispered. "Ganondorf can probably carry us across them."

"You're right," Link replied. He glanced at Ganondorf, who gestured for him to hurry up and keep moving.

Zelda quickly scratched out a message in the notebook, which Ganondorf read. He nodded with a sly smile at Zelda.

The two found themselves being scooped up and perched on either of Ganondorf's broad shoulders. They clung to the fabric of his robe as he dashed across the rooftops in the direction Link indicated, apparently expending no more effort than he would if he was merely out for a walk.

When they reached the end of the buildings along the way, Ganondorf looked down. The monsters didn't seem to have spread this far, though judging by the faint sounds of marching that the three could hear over the rain, they weren't far away.

Ganondorf leapt down from the roof and dashed off towards the fields of New Hyrule.


	3. Chapter 3

About an hour later, Ganondorf finally stopped running and unceremoniously dumped the two children off his shoulders. Zelda landed on her feet, but Link wasn't expecting the move and landed square on his behind. Rubbing his now-sore butt, Link stood and looked around.

Nothing but tall grass surrounded them for kilometres around. Far in the distance, Link could see the impossibly tall trees of the New Hyrule Forest.

"What do we do now? We have no idea what's going on in Castle City, and Impa won't answer me..." Zelda wrung her hands. "I'm so scared, Link..."

"We'll be okay, Zelda. I promise. Why don't we ask Ganondorf if he knows what to do next?"

"Good idea." She scribbled down a short message in the notebook. Ganondorf considered it for a moment, then wrote down a slightly longer reply.

"A spell," Zelda began to translate after a moment. "He can do a spell to find pieces of the Triforce." She gaped at the paper for a moment. "Find the Triforce? It's something we can find?"

"Apparently. What does he need for the spell?"

Zelda wrote that down, and Ganondorf wrote a short reply.

"He needs our help. He needs us to join hands and focus on the Triforce...? One second..."

She wrote something else down, and Ganondorf drew a triangle on the page, then three other triangles within it. "Triforce," he said with great importance, then held his hands out to the other two.

Zelda put the notebook in the pocket of her hoodie and joined hands with Ganondorf and Link. Ganondorf closed his eyes, and the other two followed suit.

Link tried to focus on the image Ganondorf had given them, but found his mind wandering. He kept thinking about the coast, the ocean stretching out before him as far as the eye could see.

In his mind's eye, Link passed over the ocean waves, close above them as though he were a low-flying seagull. He flew until he came upon land, a tall stone structure sticking straight up from the sea. He flew closer, and saw that the structure had once been an imposing fortress, but it had been eroded over time until it was crumbling.

Link flew into one of the holes that the sea had worn into the outside wall of the fortress, landing on a raised portion of the floor where a shard of something shining bright gold sat.

Link's eyes flew open, and he gasped. "I think I found a piece! It's out on the ocean! There was a fortress, and the piece was inside it!"

"I saw a piece too! I saw the top of a mountain covered in snow! It was so beautiful..."

Ganondorf grunted and gestured for the notebook. Zelda read his message. "He says he saw a forest clearing full of fog."

"Which one should we try to get first? It might be easiest to go for the forest..."

"You're right. Let's go there first."

Zelda wrote a message to Ganondorf, who frowned at it, then sighed and lifted the other two onto his shoulders again. He set off in the direction of the trees.

It was nearly dark by the time they arrived at the edge of the forest, and Link and Zelda decided it was probably a bad idea to go into the forest at night. They made camp, collecting deadwood from the ground for Ganondorf to start a fire.

Link and Zelda sat side-by-side by the campfire, keeping warm as the spring night grew cooler. Ganondorf sat across from them, gazing pensively into the fire and occasionally looking up at the two of them. Once every few minutes, Zelda would write something in the notebook, sometimes in modern Hylian and sometimes in Great Sea for Ganondorf to read.

"What are you writing?"

"A list. I'm going to write down all the locations of Triforce shards we figure out, so we don't forget where we have to go next."

Link smiled appreciatively. "Good idea."

They were silent for a time, until Link said, "Those poor people in Castle City... Why did those monsters do that? And where did they come from?"

"The same place the rain came from, probably: nowhere."

"This sucks," Link muttered. "I wish this didn't happen. We should be at home in bed, not running away from monsters with a weird old man who can't even speak Hylian."

"Yeah, it sucks," Zelda agreed with a sigh. "But look on the bright side! We get to have an adventure! It's like in the legends and the histories!"

"Yeah!" After a second, Link deflated. "But it still sucks."

Zelda giggled, drawing Ganondorf's attention once again away from the flames. He watched Zelda for a moment, then gestured for the notebook again.

"He says we should go to sleep," Zelda translated. "We have to get up early."

Link took off his light jacket and handed it to Zelda. "Here, you can take this. It's gonna get cold."

"I've got a hoodie, silly." But she took it anyway, with a soft smile that made Link feel much better.

"Night, Zelda."

"Night, Link."

They rose with the sun the next morning. Ganondorf woke them up, much to Link's annoyance, but he didn't say anything, since it would have fallen on deaf ears anyway.

As they headed along the forest path, Link and Zelda walked beside Ganondorf rather than sitting astride his shoulders – they were less likely to run into branches that way. Link and Zelda took the lead, both having heard of the stories surrounding the forest, but neither agreeing on how exactly one was supposed to get through it.

"I say it's the branches," Link argued. "The Hero of the Rails followed the way some of the tree branches pointed to get through the woods."

"You think some old fairy tale will get us through these woods? Father always said that if you're lost in a maze, go left at a turn. That way you'll cover all the ground in the maze eventually."

"The Hero of the Rails was not a fairy tale! He was in the history books!"

"No history book I've ever read said that he was anything but an engineer who discovered why the tracks were disappearing! And besides that, he never walked through the woods, he took the train!"

Suddenly, Ganondorf picked them both up, turned them away from each other, and set them down on opposite sides of himself, a clear sign to both that the argument ought to stop. Still, they hadn't decided how they were to get through the forest, and Zelda pointed out as much to him.

"Try both ways, he says. Fine. We'll try my way first."

Link stuck his tongue out at her, but followed behind as she led them through the woods. After an hour or so of walking, they came upon...

"That's the same rock we've seen three times, Zelda," Link said with a roll of his eyes. "It was right at the beginning of the forest, too. Face it, your way isn't working."

"These woods don't make any sense," she muttered, burying her face in her hands. "How are we supposed to get through?"

"I'm telling you, we're supposed to follow the tree branches. There's a whole bunch of dead trees at really obvious spots in the maze. Look, there's one now." He indicated a short tree with only one branch, which pointed to the right.

Link led the way this time, following the path the dead trees laid out for them. Finally, after another few hours, they came upon a huge tree with a gaping hole in its trunk.

"That must be the Forest Temple! We made it through the woods!"

"But there's no misty clearing here," Zelda pointed out. "We weren't looking for the Forest Temple."

Link's face fell. "Oh. Right. Well, at least we're not totally lost anymore."

"Hey! We weren't totally lost! At least -"

Suddenly, Ganondorf clamped a hand over each of their mouths, silencing them. They followed his gaze to see a red monster ducking behind a tree.

Ganondorf grunted, releasing the two children and stalking towards the tree. He unsheathed one of his swords from its place in his sleeve and slashed right through the tree, knocking it down and causing the hiding monster to panic. It froze, staring up at Ganondorf with its bulging eyes, right up until he cleaved it in half with a single blow.

As Link and Zelda watched in awe, the monster disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

"Whoa," Link said. "I wanna learn how to do that!" He turned to Zelda eagerly. "Ask him if he can teach me how to use a sword like that!"

"Later, Link," Zelda said, rolling her eyes. "Boys..."

Ganondorf closed his eyes for a moment. With a newfound sense of purpose, he headed back into the woods the way they'd come from, forcing the children to drop their conversation and scramble after him.

He led them through the woods to the place he had apparently seen in his vision, a perfectly round clearing surrounded by intimidatingly tall trees. The air in the clearing swirled with mist, just as Ganondorf had described.

In the centre of the clearing stood a tall round stone with a piece of gold glittering atop it.

Link and Zelda watched as Ganondorf picked up the piece and held it to the back of his left hand. With a flash, the piece disappeared and the back of his hand lit up in the shape of the Triforce, dimming so that only the top piece glowed.

Ganondorf nodded in satisfaction. "It's good to be back," he muttered.

Link and Zelda started. "Hey, you can speak Hylian!"

He turned to them in realization. "Ah. Yes, the Triforce can translate my words into your language. I'm surprised it works without you two having your pieces, though."

"Hm... Well, it's a mystery for the ages." Zelda shrugged. "It's much easier than having to pass around a notebook and pen, though."

"Indeed. Now, you two... Where did you say you saw your pieces?"

"I saw mine at the bottom of an old tower on the sea! It used to be a castle or something, I think..."

"Or a fortress, perhaps? I think I know where you're talking about." He turned to Zelda. "And you?"

"I saw mine on the top of a snowy mountain. I think it was here in New Hyrule. But... why are we trying to find the Triforce? Why aren't we trying to take my kingdom back from those monsters? You can beat them really easily, right?"

Ganondorf looked her in the eye. "Those monsters are not the greatest thing we have to face. What we have to face is beyond my power alone... We'll need the aid of the Triforce to touch it. And we'll need the aid of the Triforce to restore your kingdom... and mine."

"Your kingdom?"

"What you might call Old Hyrule is, by right of conquest, my kingdom." The two stared at him blankly, and he sighed. "I'll explain the whole story later. Right now, we should start heading for your pieces. The mountains are probably easier, since we have no way of crossing the sea just yet."

"Probably," Zelda agreed. "The Snow Realm is north of here. That's where we'll find the mountain I saw, I think." She bit her lip. "I don't know which mountain it's on, though... and there's a lot of them."

"I should be able to sense it when we get closer," Ganondorf assured. "Now, it'll be easier to travel if you get on my shoulders again."

The two came closer, Link less certainly than Zelda. There was something in him that told him not to trust Ganondorf; maybe it was the King of Evil business in the way he'd introduced himself to Impa, maybe it was the way he'd mentioned a conquest of Old Hyrule, but something in Link's gut told him to keep away from the man.

Ganondorf rolled his eyes at Link, Zelda already atop his shoulder. "Come on, kid. We're wasting time here. Every minute we're not moving is a minute the monsters are gaining on us."

Link stepped towards him reluctantly, and he was scooped up and perched on a wide shoulder.


	4. Chapter 4

The three arrived at the edge of the Snow Realm within twelve hours of traveling. They had planned to head directly for the mountains, but they had to detour to a town, as within hours it had become clear that Link and Zelda were not equipped for the cold.

As soon as they set foot in town, however, they were attacked. The monsters were numerous, but eventually Ganondorf managed to destroy them all.

Unfortunately, it was too late for the townsfolk. Their bodies lay strewn around the town, Anouki and Hylian alike murdered by the strange monsters.

Link and Zelda hurried about their business, dashing in and out of buildings to find somewhere that had winter clothing that would fit them and wasn't covered in blood.

The trio headed onwards after about an hour, having found decent winter clothing for both Link and Zelda. Ganondorf had apparently enchanted his robes to keep him warm in the cold and cool in the heat a long time ago.

When they made camp for the night, at the base of the closest mountain, Zelda stared blankly into the fire.

"What's wrong?" Link asked softly.

"I just... Those were my people. They were... All of them..." She let out a dry sob. "There was nothing we could do to protect them. And Castle City... Probably all the towns around New Hyrule are the same..."

Link opened his arms and she threw herself into them, sobbing into his shoulder. Ganondorf watched her from across the fire, apparently impassively. When he spoke up, his voice was hard and hot with anger.

"What was done to your people was wrong. Rest assured, though, that by doing what we're doing right now we'll avenge them. I... I was once the ruler of a people, the Gerudo of the desert..."

Link and Zelda watched his face turn from hard to mournful. Staring into the fire, he poured out the story of his people to the two. When he was finished, Link and Zelda had tears streaming down their faces, though they were both silent.

"…My people are gone. I am the only one who now carries their legacy. And... it weighs on me. My actions, and my inactions, doomed my people to disappearance." He stared at Zelda, eyes shining with determination. "But your people will not follow mine. I swear it."

"Thank you," Zelda said quietly, after a moment.

Eventually, they fell asleep.

* * *

The next day dawned bright, and the three stared up at the mountain where the next piece of the Triforce was.

"How are we gonna climb the mountain?" Link asked softly. "It's pretty big..."

"The Triforce piece isn't at the very top," Zelda assured. "I saw a little cave, maybe halfway up."

"We should keep moving," Ganondorf said. "Get on my shoulders, and hold on tight."

He scooped up the children and placed them on his shoulders. Link and Zelda clung to his robe as he crouched and leapt into the air, landing on an outcropping of rock about halfway up the cliff.

In this way, they made their way up the mountain. It was slow going, and Zelda and Link wondered how long it would take them to get to the cave Zelda had seen.

After a while, Ganondorf stopped. "We're getting close," he said. "I can sense the Triforce nearby, but..."

Zelda looked around carefully. "This looks like the right place... but where's the cave?"

Ganondorf grunted. "I have an idea."

He drew back his arm, and a ball of flame appeared in his palm. He made a throwing motion, and the flame flew into the rock wall, bursting into a bonfire and melting the snow around it. The melting snow revealed the cave – more of a small depression in the rock wall – that Zelda hopped off Ganondorf's shoulders to dash over to.

She dug around in the remaining snow for a moment, then held up her hands triumphantly. In her glove rested a piece of gold.

"Excellent."

"How do I use it?"

"Take off your glove and press it against the back of your hand. Absorb it into yourself... then you will be able to use it."

Zelda did as Ganondorf said, watching with wide eyes as the Triforce piece disappeared into her hand, reappearing as a mark on the back. She held out her hand to the other two, who watched as the mark glowed gold, then faded.

Zelda put her glove back on and trotted back over to Ganondorf, who lifted her back up onto his shoulder.

"Great! Where to next?"

"We should head for the next piece of the Triforce. Link, you said it was at sea?"

"Yeah, it's in a castle thing way far away from here. But shouldn't we make sure there aren't any more pieces near here before we go out there?"

"We should. We should make camp; when we're settled, we can perform the same spell to find any more nearby pieces."

They made their careful way down the mountain and returned to the place where they'd made camp the night before. There, the three took each other's hands and searched out the Triforce.

Link's mind returned to the castle on the sea, but this time, he felt a pull away from it. He followed the pull across the waves to a great mountain with nearby outcroppings of rock. Link flew around the mountain and spotted a large cave opening. He could tell that the Triforce was inside, but before he could enter, he was interrupted by Zelda releasing his hand.

"My next piece is on an island with a big windmill," Zelda reported. "I think it's Windfall Island."

"I saw my next piece in the caldera of an extinct volcano," Ganondorf said.

"Oh, that must be Dragon Roost Island!" Link said. "I saw the area where my other piece was, but I didn't see the piece itself…"

He thought for a moment. "The next piece is on the ocean… the Great Sea isn't that big. Lemme think… the island looked like a big mountain… and there was a little river coming out of the entrance…"

"Could it be the Forest Haven?" Zelda suggested.

Link considered this. His face lit up. "Yeah! My second piece is in the Forest Haven!"

"Then all of our next pieces are at sea," Ganondorf said. "We'll start heading towards the coast tomorrow."

"Good idea," Zelda murmured, staring at the fire as she had before the trek up the mountain. She shook herself slightly and looked at the other two brightly. "We should get some rest; it's a long way to the coast from here."

Link and Ganondorf nodded their agreement, and the younger two slid into the insulated tent they'd also taken from town.

As they got into their sleeping bags, Link shimmied over towards Zelda.

"Zelda... I've gotta talk to you." He kept his voice low so Ganondorf hopefully wouldn't be able to make out what he was saying.

Zelda looked at him expectantly, so he continued. "I don't... There's something in me that doesn't really trust Ganondorf. It's like... I don't know. All I can tell is something in me thinks he's a bad guy. Or was. Or something like that."

Zelda nodded thoughtfully. "I know what you mean. And it's not just how he introduced himself to Impa as the King of Evil... There's just something about him that puts me on edge. But... we have to keep traveling with him... we need him to help restore New Hyrule."

"I know..." Link frowned. "Maybe we should tell him about this stuff? It won't help to keep it a secret, I don't think. I'd rather ask him if he knows why we don't trust him than go on not trusting him and have it get us hurt at some point."

Zelda nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. We'll talk to him as we're traveling tomorrow."

So, with the plan agreed upon, the two settled into sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning, Ganondorf woke Link and Zelda with the sun, much to the former's displeasure. Still, he sat up, blinked the sleep from his eyes, and helped Ganondorf and Zelda pack up the campsite.

When there was no trace of their passing left, the children climbed up on Ganondorf's shoulders, and they set off southward.

Traveling was boring, Link decided after about two hours of watching the white nothingness pass them by. Ganondorf travelled in great leaps and bounds, which was exciting at first, but it all started to blur together monotonously after a while.

Zelda, meanwhile, kept shooting him meaningful glances over Ganondorf's head, progressing to more and more obvious glares as the time wore on. Link was well aware of what she wanted, but it wasn't an easy subject to bring up. What was he supposed to say?  _Oh, yeah, forgot to mention this earlier but there's something in my head telling me that you're actually a really bad guy and that we shouldn't be working with you_?

Fat chance.

Eventually, Ganondorf caught one of Zelda's glares and raised a big red eyebrow. "Something the matter?"

Zelda and Link had a silent debate for a second, before Link sighed and met Ganondorf's eye. "We were talking last night, and... I'm not sure how to say this but there's something about you that makes us nervous. It's like there's something in our heads telling us not to trust you."

To the children's surprise, Ganondorf burst out laughing, a deep belly laugh that made him have to stop running for a second. "Is that it? Kid, I could have told you from the beginning that trusting me was a bad idea. In fact, I should have. But whatever." Ganondorf kept running.

Link's mouth dropped open. "What do you mean by that?!"

"I mean, there's a good reason why your instincts are telling you not to trust me. I didn't call myself the King of Evil in front of your tutor for nothing, you know." Ganondorf met his eye again. "Look, I'll tell you all about why trusting me is a frankly terrible idea when we make camp for the night, okay? Right now, I want to get us down to the coast as fast as possible."

Link opened his mouth to argue, but nothing came out, so he just sighed and nodded.

The hours passed by excruciatingly slowly, but eventually, night came. By that point, they'd reached the Forest Realm again, so Link and Zelda stripped off their winter clothing. It was left on the border of the two realms, since it wouldn't be needed and it would only weigh them down.

The three made camp, and after a meal of roasted rabbit and wild greens, Ganondorf sat down opposite the children and stared them in the eye.

"So. About the whole trust thing. In the past... I don't know how long ago it was now, but in the height of Hyrule's history, I took over the country. By force. I ruled for seven years, and," he grimaced, "it was a bad time. The Zoras got frozen, the Gorons got trapped in their temple, and the Hylians fled to a small village on the outskirts of the kingdom. A lot of people died." He looked into the fire in consideration. "I don't remember a lot of that time. Unfortunately. I wish I did, because at least I'd have tried to make amends or, I don't know, stop myself, or something.

"Anyway. Some time before this, I was the king of a desert-dwelling tribe known as the Gerudo. My mother died in childbirth, and while I was raised by most of the tribe, I was trained in various things – magic, combat, some other less important things – by a pair of witches known together as Twinrova, or separately as Koume and Kotake.

"When I was about seventeen or so, a war broke out. The Fierce War. The details aren't important, but my people fought in the war, with me leading them. Sometime in the middle of the war, I was called by Twinrova. Apparently, they had some kind of power to share with me.

"Now, this wasn't well known to the tribe, but Twinrova were part of a... I guess a cult that worshipped an ancient Demon King. They'd taught me a lot of dark magic, and some of the ways of the cult, even though I didn't really believe in it.

"The power that Twinrova wanted to give me was a part of this Demon King's soul. They performed a ritual... they bound the Demon King's soul to mine."

Ganondorf looked very seriously at Link and Zelda. "The Demon King... Demise... He controlled a lot of my actions." He grimaced. "Well, not really controlled, exactly... but whenever I got angry, he was there, whispering things to make me madder, to make me lose control. Those seven years I ruled over Hyrule, he was always there..."

Ganondorf was silent for a while, staring into the fire. After a few moments, Zelda asked, "But what does that have to do with us?"

"Right. Well, when I first took over Hyrule, there was a king who ruled over it. He had a young daughter named Zelda... And there was a boy, a blond boy in a green tunic. I never got his name. But they were the ones who stopped my reign. The boy wielded the Master Sword," he nodded at the sword on Link's back, "and Zelda led seven Sages to seal me into a place called the Sacred Realm."

"The boy's name was Link," Zelda said with quiet certainty."

Ganondorf nodded. "The two were your ancestors," he told Zelda. "And you, Link, you've got the same spirit as the other Link. A hero's spirit. We'll need that."

"So that covers why we shouldn't trust you," Link said, "and there's some pretty big reasons there. But why should we trust you? I mean, you said you were going to help bring back New Hyrule, but what's going to stop you from trying to take it over?"

Ganondorf nodded approvingly. "Good question. And it brings us nicely to our next topic. These monsters... and the force I told you about, the one that's beyond me."

"It's Demise, isn't it?" Zelda asked, a look of certainty on her face. "For you to be scared of it, the force would have to be a god or something."

Ganondorf nodded. "It's Demise. I'm not sure how, but... ever since I was released from the stone, I haven't been able to sense him. I think the Master Sword somehow split our souls apart... and now he's free to wreak havoc on the world."

"But we're going to stop him," Link said, summoning up his courage and speaking with certainty that he didn't feel. "We have to."

Ganondorf grinned at him. "You sound like a Hero, all right. Yes. We're going to defeat Demise. Yes, we have to. We're the only ones that can do it."

"Why is that?" Zelda asked. "Is it because of the Triforce?"

Ganondorf nodded. "When his soul was one with mine, I saw some of his memories. The Triforce and the Master Sword are the only things that can be used against him. They're what the first Hero to stop him used. We have to unite the Triforce and use it to seal him away forever." He winked at Link. "I'm going to have to teach you how to use that thing."

Link's eyes sparkled, and it wasn't just the firelight. "Cool."

Ganondorf chuckled, then stood. "We should start now. The longer you have to practice, the more prepared you'll be when we face Demise."

"What can I do?" Zelda asked, biting her lip. "If we all have to face Demise, then I need a way to hurt him too, or at least a way of protecting myself."

Ganondorf nodded. "The last Zelda – the one who helped to put me into stone in the first place – had Light Arrows that she used against me. I don't know where we can get Light Arrows, but I can make you a bow."

He held his hands together, then moved them apart – and suddenly, a beautiful bow appeared in between his hands. He handed it to Zelda, who admired it thoroughly.

It was made of some kind of dark wood. The handle was wrapped in brown leather strips, and there was a slight curve away from the string at the ends of the wood. The string itself was in good condition.

Zelda held the handle and drew back the string. At first, her grip was awkward, but something awoke in her – like a memory, telling her how best to use the bow. She took a deep breath and shifted her stance, moving in the way suggested to her by the feeling in her head.

As Link and Ganondorf watched, the Triforce symbol on the back of her hand began to glow. An identical glow appeared on the string of the bow.

Zelda took another deep breath and released the string.

A blur of light shot from the bow, striking a nearby tree. As the light faded, Link dashed over to examine the tree – and found that there was a hole burned straight through the trunk.

He looked at Zelda with wide eyes and a massive grin.

"Cool."


	6. Chapter 6

Link's sword practice didn't go as easily.

He tried to learn the strikes Ganondorf showed him – having conjured himself a longsword to better show Link the moves – tried to perform them properly, but something was... off.

Ganondorf frowned as he overbalanced and landed in a heap on the ground. "There's something missing. Your predecessors had training, but this isn't just a lack of training. Something's not right."

Link picked himself up from the ground only to sit down heavily on his butt. "Maybe I'm just hopeless. Maybe you should take the sword." He offered it up to Ganondorf, who shook his head.

"No. You're the one who has to use the sword. I could use it, but it's at its full power in the hands of the Goddess-chosen Hero. Which is not me." Ganondorf shook his head again, thinking hard. "Something your predecessors had that you don't..."

"Talent? Skill? A buff body?"

Ganondorf rolled his eyes at Link. Then, he snapped his fingers. "A shield!"

As he'd done to conjure Zelda's bow, Ganondorf held his hands together, then moved them apart. A brown shield appeared in between his hands, and he handed it to Link.

The shield was simple, made of a thick board with a sheet of metal attached. The metal was decorated with the symbol of the Triforce right in the middle, and some sort of winged creature seated along the bottom curve.

Link put the shield on his right arm and took up the sword again. This time, when he slashed out, his shield arm balanced out the sword and made it easy to strike.

Ganondorf's eyes glinted. "Much better. That shield will keep you on your feet and add power to your strikes. Now..."

Ganondorf had Link try out the strikes he'd been shown earlier. The results were promising, even if Link did get tired pretty quickly and had to stop practicing within a half an hour.

Ganondorf was pleased. "It's a good start. We'll increase your fitness as we move. I suspect that gaining your piece of the Triforce will help with that, too."

"Cool," Link said through a yawn. It was taking all of his willpower not to fall asleep by the fire.

Ganondorf noticed this, apparently, since he chuckled. "Go to bed. I'll wake you both at dawn so we can keep moving."

* * *

 

The next day dawned far too early for Link's liking. They were again off and moving as soon as camp had been packed up.

It took them two days to reach the coast. In that time, they hadn't met another person – but they did have a few skirmishes with monsters, wherein Link and Zelda got some practice in with their weapons, Link finishing off the monsters Ganondorf left in his wake, Zelda providing support from behind.

The three made a good team. Every day, the children grew closer to Ganondorf, listening to his stories about Hyrule and learning to trust him despite the vague discomfort in their heads – which had eased since his explanation of his circumstances, but – at least in Link's case - had not disappeared completely.

When they reached the seaside, the three paused to decide where to go. They had two options – one was to see if there were any people left alive in houses along the coast; the other was to head straight for the port of Aboda Town and try to find a boat that had been left in the harbour.

Eventually, they decided that they were more likely to find a boat in a harbour and headed for Aboda.

Much like the Anouki village in the Snow Realm, the only occupantsof the town were monsters. Unlike the village, there were significantly larger numbers of monsters, and there were also different kinds. There were monsters that basically looked like the red guys but carried different weapons – some had electricity glowing along the edges of their blades, while others carried bows. There were also blue monsters that looked like the red guys – Link figured they had to be different somehow, but wasn't sure how.

And finally, there were the big guys. They stood around three-quarters of Ganondorf's height, and they were  _fat_. And they also carried huge wooden shields.

The regular guys roamed the streets, while one of the big guys stood guard on seemingly every street corner.

The three heroes drew back some distance from town so they wouldn't be spotted, in order to decide on a strategy. Link was in favour of just fighting their way down to the water – the main street was only two streets over from the road out of town they were standing on, and it went directly down to the harbour – but Zelda vetoed that idea, saying that it was too risky.

"We could get hurt, and there's no hospital where we can get treated. I say we climb up the side of a building and use the rooftops to get to the harbour."

"That would be an excellent idea if there weren't monsters on every second rooftop," Ganondorf said dryly. "Either way, we'll have to fight our way through, but overall, Zelda's plan is easier. We can head over to the main street, climb up onto a building, and fight our way over the rooftops."

Link nodded, accepting the better idea for what it was.

The children climbed onto Ganondorf's shoulders again, and he brought them over to the main road. He leapt up onto the closest building and quickly bisected the startled monster who had been standing guard before he could raise the alarm.

Zelda drew her bow and fired at the monster on the next roof over. When it vanished in a puff of smoke, Ganondorf started moving.

They progressed in this manner until they hit the harbour, where Ganondorf was forced to leap off the roof onto the boardwalk – right in the path of one of the big guys.

Link immediately leapt off Ganondorf's back over the monster's head. While it was still stunned from the trio's sudden appearance, Link slashed out and sliced through the backs of its knees. The monster dropped to the ground with a roar of pain.

Its roar didn't go unnoticed. A blue monster nearby whirled around at the sound. Seeing its comrade in trouble, it raised a horn to its lips and blasted a loud note.

Zelda fired an arrow into its head, but it was too late. The three heard thundering footsteps from down the boardwalk, and a horde of monsters converged on them.

Link wasn't aware of anything except his enemies for some time. It seemed like every time he killed one monster, two would take its place. He blocked one strike and risked a glance over at Ganondorf and Zelda, and it looked like they were in the same position.

In the next second, Link was forced to duck and roll to the side to avoid a slash that would have sliced him in half. He narrowly avoided falling off the boardwalk into the water only by coming up into a leap out over it.

He landed heavily against the metal railing of a boat. He scrambled and clung to one of the bars of the railing. Then, when he was no longer panicking at his close call, he pulled himself up and over the railing into the boat proper.

The monsters he'd escaped weren't standing idle, though. The ones nearest Ganondorf had turned their attention onto him; the ones who were closer to Link were now flooding the gate to the dock the boat was moored at, trying to break it down to get to Link. By the groaning sound the metal was making, they would succeed soon.

Link had to act fast. He yelled out to Ganondorf, who turned as soon as he'd blocked a strike from the big monster to spot Link. The older man nodded to Link and swept one of his massive swords out in a deadly arc that cleaved the heads off of several monsters, clearing enough of a path that he could take a step and leap onto the boat with Link.

Zelda dropped off Ganondorf's shoulders as soon as they'd landed and dashed over to help Link start the boat's engine. Luckily, there was just a button to push – the boat had no ignition key. Link slammed his hand onto the button and the engine roared to life.

Ganondorf slashed out with his sword and cut the mooring line just as the monsters finally broke down the gate and flooded the dock, just in time to see their quarry turn the boat and head out to sea.

The roars of what seemed like a hundred angry monsters were the trio's send-off on the next part of their journey.


End file.
